


Equally (But Not the Same)

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Blood and Water [21]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 04:20:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14825129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Written for the polyamory comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay/Evan Lorne, each man brings something unique to the relationship."Rodney and Nancy help put the pieces together for what's going on with John and Evan.





	Equally (But Not the Same)

“I don’t understand,” Nancy and Woolsey said at the same time.

Ronon said, “Rodney, Lorne, and John are all in a relationship together.”

They were in the conference room on Atlantis. Woolsey had ordered Nancy blindfolded and dragged to the jumper, which Rodney flew back to Atlantis, shakily. They’d marched Nancy through Ops and to the conference room, sat her down, removed the blindfold.

Woolsey wanted to question her.

She wanted to ask questions of her own.

It was Teyla who’d suggested that Rodney offer up some kind of explanation.

“That’s a story I’d like to hear,” O’Neill said. He and the rest of SG-1 - Carter, Jackson, Mitchell, Teal’c, Vala - and everyone else who’d been at dinner - Beckett, Zelenka, Kanaan, Keller - were all seated in the conference room.

And staring at Rodney.

So he said, “Look, John and Evan didn’t want to tell me at first, because they’re ashamed of it, guilty about it, but then they agreed to tell me and of course I wasn’t going to tell anyone about us, because  _ us.” _

Now everyone was staring at him even more intently.

O’Neill raised his eyebrows. “All  _ three _ of you?”

Jackson, ever the anthropologist, said, “How does that work?”

Rodney was immediately defensive. “Each of us brings something unique to the relationship. Evan is our grounding force. He’s calm and sort of - domestic. He makes sure we take coffee breaks and eat and sleep right and vent about our day. John is - John. Willing to try new things, willing to be creative and explore. And I’m - the nice one. Sort of. I didn’t grow up the way they did, so they see me as  _ innocent _ or something.”

“Grow up how?” Woolsey asked. “Someone mentioned something about Colonel Sheppard’s mother being murdered.”

“The Mafia,” Nancy said.

Everyone stared at her.

Nancy said, “John Sheppard is the son of Patrick Sheppard, who ran South Boston. I’m from the O’Hara family, a rival gang in Boston. Hovhan - Evan - is my cousin. His mother is - was - an O’Hara as well. But they married her off to one of the Davytyans.”

“Armenians,” Jackson said.

Nancy nodded. “Evan and I both wanted out. I guess John wanted out too. I don’t know. I didn’t realize who he was when I married him. He divorced me because a Sheppard being married to a prosecutor who’d refuse to be bribed was a death sentence for me.”

“If they both walked away from that life,” Woolsey said, “why were they arrested tonight?”

“Vengeance,” Nancy said. “When John came home for his father’s funeral last year, he managed to get some evidence that pointed to his brother as responsible for the murder of the man who’d possibly murdered Patrick Sheppard. I prosecuted. The Sheppard family was in disarray, two leaders gone in quick succession. The Davytyans swept in and took over. It was a bloodbath. The Sheppards blame John for the loss of David Sheppard, of course.”

“Then why kidnap Major Lorne as well?” Carter asked.

“If that’s even his real name.” Keller looked spooked.

“The Sheppards blame Hovhan for giving power to the Davytyans. Rumor has it that years ago - and I mean years ago, when John and Hovhan were still teenagers - that Hovhan came to Boston with the Flanigans and planted the seeds of the Davytyan takeover. With Flanigan assistance.”

“But Major Lorne was a  _ teenager,” _ Beckett protested.

“As a teenager he ran his own operation,” Nancy said. “Car theft. Forgery - IDs and papers, not money.”

Zelenka, Beckett, and Keller all looked shocked.

Teyla said, “Remember, when we were held captive by that rogue tribunal? It was Major Lorne who rescued us. We just - walked out of the cell. He had bribed the guards at the stargate.”

“I knew what he was as soon as I saw him,” Vala said.

Mitchell and Teal’c turned to her, Mitchell surprised, Teal’c’s expression blank but for a raised eyebrow.

“A grifter, a con artist,” Vala said. “Like me. Come on - none of you saw it? All that politeness and  _ yes sir no ma’am _ and unnatural efficiency and how everyone likes him.”

“Not everyone likes you,” Mitchell said.

Vala shrugged. “Well, I didn’t say I was as good at it as he is.”

“Okay,” O’Neill said, “so Sheppard and Lorne or whatever their names are - they used to be in the Mafia. They joined the Air Force.”

“John was never really part of Family operations the way Hovhan was,” Nancy said. “I didn’t really understand that till - after.”

After the divorce, she meant.

“So the Mafia is mad at them,” O’Neill said. “Why kidnap and interrogate them? Why not just kill them - execute them on the street or whatever it is the Mafia does?”

Nancy sighed, scrubbed a hand over her face. “Rumor also has it that before he bailed on the family, Hovhan took his operation’s little nest egg and ran.”

“You said the nest egg was little,” Vala said.

“Impersonating federal agents and kidnapping three men off the streets is a lot for a little nest egg,” Jackson said.

Nancy nodded. “The money was small potatoes. But what Hovhan also had was a ledger - of every false ID he drew up.”

Jackson, O’Neill, and Woolsey nodded.

“What?” Carter asked. “Why is that a big deal?”

“The IRA was a huge deal in the seventies and eighties,” O’Neill said.

Of course. He was Irish.

His expression was grave. “A lot of mob families supported the Glorious Cause, helped smuggle IRA members into the States to drum up funding for the cause, or to help with gun-running.” 

“So that ledger -”

“Could tie the Flanigans and maybe the Davytyans to international terrorism and weapons smuggling,” Woolsey said. “That’s worth more than money.”

“That’s worth a man’s life,” Vala said.

“What’s the plan?” Rodney asked. “How do we get them back? Couldn’t we just beam them aboard the  _ Daedalus  _ or something? They have those trackers.”

“That gets them into our hands,” O’Neill said. “But it doesn’t solve the issue of multiple mafia families being after them.”

For all that O’Neill played stupid, he was a general for a reason. He was a strategist and a tactician. He and Carter had been key in running the war against the Goa’uld for the better part of a decade.

“So what do we do?” Rodney asked, because he wanted them safe, wanted them  _ home. _ “Atlantis can’t go back to Pegasus without them.”

“What  _ you _ do,” O’Neill said, “is go back to your lab with Zelenka and pretend you never told me about how the two senior-most military officers on Atlantis are engaged in some pretty hefty regs violations.”

“Jack,” Jackson said sharply.

And Rodney realized. Jackson and O’Neill were - 

“I’m doing this to protect them. And you,” O’Neill said to Rodney. “Woolsey, you’re with me. So are you, Daniel. You too, Carter. Mitchell, get on the horn to Caldwell. We might be needing the  _ Daedalus.  _ Vala, you’re with me, since you understand - things.”

“What about me?” Nancy asked.

“Well, since we talked about a whole bunch of classified stuff in front of you, you get to sign an NDA the size of a phone book, and then you get to help us figure out how to get your ex-husband and your cousin back,” O’Neill said. “Woolsey?”

Woolsey tapped his radio. “Major Cartwright, get me an NDA. Hard copy. ASAP.”

Rodney stood up on shaky legs. Teyla was beside him in an instant. Ronon was on the other side of him, and together they led him out of the conference room and to the nearest transporter. They helped him back to his quarters. Quarters he hadn’t seen much of, because he spent most of his time in John’s. John’s were just as big as his but they were closer to Evan’s.

Rodney sank down on the edge of his bed. “I should go to the lab. Help Radek. I should -”

“Radek is capable of handling things on his own for a while,” Teyla said, her voice firm but gentle.

Ronon said, “So, you too. With Sheppard and Lorne. How?”

“I’ve been in love with John for - a long time. Didn’t realize it till Evan and I were trapped under that base that Michael had booby-trapped to explode on us,” Rodney said. “After everything that happened with the super-hive and coming back to Earth, they just kind of - it was complicated. At first. They said they wanted me, but I didn’t really know what to do with Evan, because I didn’t think he liked me, and - it works now.”

“I knew Sheppard’s family was - dangerous,” Ronon said. “At the funeral. The men were armed. They were soldiers waiting for a war. I didn’t realize Lorne was from a family like that. But -”

“It makes sense,” Teyla said. “There has always been something they shared that only they understood.”

Ronon looked at Rodney. “And now you share it.”

“I didn’t grow up the way they did. But they told me about it and I - I just kind of don’t care. I mean, Evan got us out of that stupid trial and John has saved my life so many times. If they hadn’t grown up like that, they wouldn’t be the men they are today, and we need them as they are.”

Atlantis needed them.  _ Rodney _ needed them. Atlantis needed John’s ability to be ruthless when it counted, and Evan’s ability to make it rain. Rodney needed John’s mathematical brilliance and sultry kisses, Evan’s steady calm and his gentle hands.

“Do you love them?” Teyla asked.

“Yes.”

“Equally?”

“Yes, equally. But not the same. John is - John takes my breath away. He’s adrenaline and passion and he makes me feel like I’m more than just a scientist, than just Rodney. Evan makes me feel real, grounded, like I’m  _ here.  _ Sometimes with John I’m caught up in the flames and it’s like neither of us exist, we’re pure energy and fire. When I’m with Evan, I’m in the present, I’m in my body. And when it’s all three of us - I don’t have words for it.”

Rodney took a deep breath. 

It was Ronon who asked, “Are you happy?”

“Yes.” Rodney could say it without hesitation.

“Then I’m happy for you.” Ronon smiled.

Teyla patted Rodney’s hand. “As am I.”

“I’ll be happy when they’re back,” Rodney said. He took a deep breath, stood up. “Let’s go find out what General O’Neill is planning.”

Ronon was at the door before Rodney could blink. “Thought you’d say that a lot sooner.”


End file.
